Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident (AIA) 2023
Becky Meneely took her first pottery class at the age of 7 as part of an after-school program while living in rural western Kentucky and has been hooked ever since. She minored in art with an emphasis in ceramics and graduated with a BA in 2010. She then bounced around using whatever studio space she could until finally purchasing a kiln in 2017. She currently works out of her garage in rural northwest Missouri, where she draws inspiration from the plants and wildlife that live on – and pass through – her property.
This work is my reluctant love letter to the Midwest. I’ve lived from the east coast to the west coast, and several spots in-between, always in search of my “place,” but consistently finding myself squarely back in the Midwest, and so I’ve decided to love it, how ever so reluctantly.
As part of my love letter my work explores the often overlooked, quiet beauty of my fly-over home that I experience right outside my studio. The wildflowers that grow along the seemingly endless miles of gravel roads and fence rows occupy some of the background space of my work, and the wildlife that adorn the pots capture attention and invite viewers to look closer, just as they also do in real-life. This work is intended to be a tactile experience for daily use. I am endlessly fascinated by textures and how things feel, and I strive to create work that begs to be held and investigated, and feels at home in user’s hands.